UF Health Cancer Center rolls out mobile cancer screening vehicle
The University of Florida Health Cancer Center launched a 40-foot-long mobile cancer screening bus Wednesday that will expand access to lifesaving cancer screenings and essential health care services, including 3D mammograms and cervical, colon, and prostate cancer screenings.
Called the Mobile Cancer Screening Connector, it’s the first of its kind in North Central Florida and will serve a region larger than Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut combined. It strengthens the Cancer Center’s efforts to detect cancer early — when it’s most treatable — by eliminating barriers like transportation and time away from work. Those barriers place a large burden on residents of the largely rural region of North Central Florida the center serves, where breast cancer is among the most prevalent cancers and many lack access to screening.
“We are so proud to launch the Mobile Cancer Screening Connector to bring vital cancer screening and health care services directly to people right in their own communities,” said Jonathan D. Licht, M.D., director of the UF Health Cancer Center. “As a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, this innovative mobile unit will help us reduce the burden of cancer in the expansive area we serve, with a particular focus on rural, aging, and underserved groups, and bring evidence-based health care where it’s needed most.”